When G-Dragon and Dara returned to the office, they saw the rest of the group crowded along the far wall, all staring out the window. The two quickly ran over to the others and tried to get a look.

G-Dragon tugged at Daesung’s arm. “What’s happening?” he asked. He tried to squeeze between Daesung and Minzy to see outside.

“Hyung! Where have you been?” Daesung moved out of the way and let G-Dragon look.

A tank was slowly making its way down the street, rolling over all the zombies in its path. Three soldiers wearing black berets and dark green camouflage combat uniforms sat atop it. One was operating the machine gun, shooting any zombies that came too close. The second was keeping watch with binoculars. The third had a loudspeaker, which he now used, his voice distorted through the amplification.

“I repeat, if you are in a secure location and are safe, stay where you are. If you are not in a secure location, carefully proceed to the rescue center at Seoul World Cup Stadium.”

Gary grabbed Jong Kook’s shoulder. “Open the window, hyung! We need to call out and let them know we’re here!”

Jong Kook frantically looked around the window pane, searching for a latch, but Hyun Suk turned to him and shook his head.

“The window doesn’t open,” he said. “Unless you want to break it, but…”

But Jong Kook didn’t wait to hear the rest of Hyun Suk’s sentence. He ran over to the weapons stockpile, grabbed a barbell, yelled for everyone to move, and then bashed the barbell against the window, the glass shattering everywhere.

The tank had not yet made it past their building. It was still up the street a little ways. But the group began waving their arms out of the open window anyway, yelling as loud as they could.

“We need something else,” Ji Hyo said. “Something to get their attention.”

Jong Kook looked around and then told Kwang Soo to go to the barricade and drag a desk back to him. “When that tank gets closer,” he said, “I’ll throw the desk out the window. That’ll definitely get their attention.”

Kwang Soo did as instructed and returned with the desk, which Jong Kook now held up in his bulging arms.

The group watched as the tank, just a few buildings down, began approaching. The soldier with the machine gun shot at a few more zombies. pop pop pop pop pop. And then the one with the loudspeaker began reciting the message once again. “I repeat, if you are in a secure location...”

When the tank was close enough, Jae Suk yelled for Jong Kook to throw the desk out of that fifth floor window. The group then peered down, seeing the desk smash into pieces on the sidewalk, the crash so loud that it startled the soldier with the loudspeaker and he stopped in the middle of his message.

Everyone inside began shouting and waving. “Here!” they yelled. “We’re up here!” They saw the soldier with the binoculars stand and aim his sight on them and then grab the loudspeaker from the other soldier.

“Jae Suk-ssi?” the soldier asked, his voice staticky through the loudspeaker. “Is that you?”

Jae Suk looked down at the soldier. “Yeah!” he yelled, thinking that the soldier’s soft voice now sounded familiar. Was it an idol? He tried to think about which idols were currently completing their military service. And then he realized who it was. “Leeteuk-ssi!?”

Everyone at the window looked at each other and then back down at the soldier on the street below. “Leeteuk?” they asked. “From Super Junior?” It was as if all the gloom in that room suddenly disappeared. The group erupted in smiles and hugs and talk of rescue.

Jae Suk nodded and smiled now. “We’re all up here! You need to help us!”

“We can’t stop,” Leeteuk yelled. “We’ll be overrun if we stop. Are you safe?”

Jong Kook moved in front of Jae Suk and yelled down. “Stop the tank! We can run down there and meet you!”

Leeteuk took off his beret and wiped his forehead before holding the loudspeaker back up to his mouth. “We can’t,” he said. “We have orders. Go to the stadium. We’ll see you there.”

The group watched with blank faces as the tank continued on with its message to the citizens blaring out of the loudspeaker, interrupted only by the occasional bursts of machine gun fire. They watched until they could no longer see the tank, until they could no longer hear the message and the machine gun, until all that was left was a quiet street full of zombies.

“They left us,” Bom said, sinking to the floor.

T.O.P. sat down beside her. “We’ll be okay,” he said. He looked up at Hyun Suk and Jong Kook, waiting for one of them to say something.

“Change of plans?” Jong Kook asked Hyun Suk.

Hyun Suk nodded. “The boat can always be a backup,” he said. “The stadium is our best bet now.”

While Hyun Suk, Jong Kook, and Jae Suk sat with the blueprints and some paper, sketching out a plan, the others tried to prepare for their impending departure.

Ji Hyo, Gary, and Kwang Soo decided to search through all of the desk drawers to scavenge for food. G-Dragon, T.O.P., Daesung, and Seungri looked for cardboard and tape in the offices to make more armor for their arms and legs. The 2ne1 girls, not knowing what else to do, sat and watched Hyun Suk, Jong Kook, and Jae Suk strategize and debate.

“I can’t believe we’re leaving,” CL said.

“We’re really going to do this?” Minzy asked.

Dara looked over at the men, watching as they drew a street map from the YG building to the World Cup Stadium while discussing which roads would be best to take. “Guess so,” she answered.

“But that’s good, right?” Bom asked. “Maybe our families are there?”

The girls thought about their siblings and parents now, hopeful that they would all be at the rescue center.

Ji Hyo, Kwang Soo, and Gary returned with some food they found in the desk drawers, as well as three bottles of soju.

Hyun Suk looked up at them now and saw the bottles of soju that Ji Hyo was carrying. “Whose desk did you find those in?” he asked.

Ji Hyo shrugged. “I don’t know,” she said. “Just one of the random desks in the barricade.”

Hyun Suk smiled and nodded. “I bet it was that new intern,” he said, but he let his voice trail off, realizing that the intern was probably a zombie by now, just like all the others. He turned back to Jong Kook and Jae Suk. “So, what are we thinking?” he asked. “Tomorrow morning?”

Jong Kook looked over the blueprints again, studying the route they would be taking from the stairwell downstairs to the service hallway that led around the cafeteria and out the back. And then he glanced over at the street map they had drawn from the building to the stadium. “There’s something… something’s not right.”

Hyun Suk and Jae Suk looked at Jong Kook and then back down at the map.

Jong Kook pointed to the blueprints. “This service hallway leads us out the back, but the vans are in front. That means that we either have to run around the building outside to the vans in front or…”

“Or we fight our way through the lobby,” Hyun Suk said.

Jae Suk shook his head. “I’ve been telling you guys, that lobby… no way.”

“Jae Suk-ah, we don’t know what the back of the building looks like either,” Jong Kook said. “It could be worse. And that’s a longer route. That means we’d have to circle completely around the building to get to those vans.”

Ji Hyo now sat down beside the men. “There are a lot of us,” she said. “We can fight.”

Jong Kook looked up at her. He loved her strength. It was perhaps what he loved most about her. But at the same time, he wished that she was the type of girl who’d just hide behind him and let him protect her. It would be easier that way, he thought. He wouldn’t have to worry as much about her being in harm’s way. But then again, they were all in harm’s way no matter what. Maybe it was better that she could defend herself.

Ji Hyo looked at him, catching him staring and smiling at her. “Why are you looking at me like that, Jong Kookie?”

They both smiled widely now. But they were the only two smiling in that room. The 2ne1 girls were still quietly talking about their families, Kwang Soo and Gary were solemnly sorting through the snacks they had found, and the Big Bang boys who had just returned with cardboard and duct tape were now sitting on the floor, staring at the materials with blank faces.

“We might need to do something about morale,” Hyun Suk said.

Ji Hyo, still smiling, held up the soju bottles. “This will help,” she said.